Teacher Tips Tuesday!

Hey Everyone!  I'm SUPER excited for this weeks Teacher Tips Tuesday!!  Jessica Tobin is guest blogging today from Second Grade Nest!  Please make sure you stop by her totally cute blog and give her some bloggy love :)  Also, read all the way to the bottom to learn more about her!!

My Guided Reading Tips!

I have taught Kindergarten for three years and am headed to the 2^nd Grade to start teaching an older set. I got to a point in Kindergarten I could NOT teach reading without doing Guided Reading. I felt if I tried it any other way, the kids just weren’t getting all the opportunities they could when in small group.

A sample of what my morning block would look like:

Guided Reading Group 1- Working with teacher (leveled readers and sight word work)

Guided Reading Group 2- Working with assistant writing in journals

Guided Reading Group 3- Word Work 1

Guided Reading Group 4- Word Work 2

Guided Reading Group 5- Word Work 3

A FREEBIE to help track your progress with each group- this is necessary to prevent mixing lessons and brains frying…

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7mjRwFty62LUGRjaVh3Z0ZpRDg/edit?pli=1

 

Group 1: Leveled Readers and Sight Word Work:

Teaching reading from a basal is often tough. Teaching Kindergarten for 3 years it was almost impossible to nail down an “average” reading level for my little ones. I had students reading three words and I had students reading three pages, so I started using Reading A-Z!

 

The cost is rather pricey, but our school purchased ours for us after special request. Individual use is $90, but if more than 10 teachers are buying, the price lowers to $75.

They give you leveled readers that range from aa-Z.

                                    A sample of a:                                   

  A sample of Z:

I created Running Records for each of the stories I used every week for every group (5 Running Records a week!), but I was very satisfied with the success I saw with my Reading Groups. All students’ progress was tracked and noted and even my lowest group was reading some B/C leveled books!

Also, my group was the group that had Sight Word drill once or twice a week. I follow the Fry Sight Word list and let students work their way through it as they mastered. I did not put a limit on where my kids ended up. One of my high reading levels girls (no joke) ended up on the fifth hundred words by March!!

I used this as my Assessment/Flashcard set for the kids:

Click to see this flashcard set!

Once they could read all 100 words from each list, they bumped to the next list!

Group 2: Daily Journal Writing

In our Kindergarten team, each teacher uses Starfall Reading Curriculum, which is a fantastic curriculum if anyone is searching! We would prompt the students with writing prompts that went along with the readings for the week out of Starfall. The students always had to self-check themselves.

Student self-assessment…

click to go to starfall

Group 3- Group 5:

Different variations of games such as…

·        Concentration

·        Letter Matching

·        Beginning/Middle/Ending letters

·        Write the Room

·        Making Words

·        Word Family games

·        Rhyming Games

·        More.starfall.com

·        And more! 

I hope you enjoyed a short and sweet guide to the way I did my Guided Reading for my Kinders!

My name: Jessica Tobin

The years I have been teaching: 4

The grade(s) I have taught: 3 years in Kindergarten, now moving up to Second Grade for my 4^th year

The state/area that I teach in: Kentucky

My email address: jessica.l.tobin@gmail.com

Wow!!  Those were some AMAZING tips Jessica!!  Please leave her some comments and remember to check out her blog {Second Grade Nest}!

Remember to stop back the rest of this week for more guided reading goodies, freebies and giveaways!

(Are you interested in being featured??  If so please email me!!)
Results from yesterdays giveaway:
True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:3Powered by RANDOM.ORG                          Congrats Delighted! I'm giving away this pretty cool pack every day this week to a random commenter below (must leave email AND be a follower)  I will pick the winner tonight and announce it in my post tomorrow.  Thanks for reading!